The bow does not seem to have ever been the leading weapon of the Greeks, though it was always used to some extent, and archers seem to have formed
part of most Greek armies. A bronze sword inlaid with gold and silver,[2] from Mycenæ, depicts
a lion-hunt in which one of the sportsmen is armed with a bow. A fragment of
a silver vessel found by Schliemann at the same place is engraved with a
representation of the siege of a city, the defenders of which are making a
sally, armed with bows and slings. The artistic execution of the figures
leaves much to be desired, but one of the bows is distinctly Cupid-shaped,
and probably represents a composite bow. It is uncertain, however, whether
the attacking or defending party are the Greeks. In any case, the sculpture
is the work of a Greek artist of about the fourteenth or fifteenth century
B.C.

In Homer the bow is frequently mentioned, though on the side of the Greeks
in the Trojan War the great warriors, such as Achilles, Ajax, Agamemnon, and
so forth, do not appear to have been archers. Odysseus the wily was, on the
other hand, expert with the bow, and possibly he saw the advantage of being
able to strike his foe from a distance more clearly than his more dashing
comrades. Teucros, however, is said in the 'Iliad' (xiii. 313) to have been
the best archer on the side of the Greeks, though in the 'Odyssey' (viii.
220) Odysseus tells the Phaeacians that he was the best excepting
Philoctetes. He appears, however, to have been in a boasting mood, for he
adds that he can throw a spear farther than any other man can shoot an arrow.
Pandarus, son of Machaon, appears to have been the chief archer on the Trojan
side, though no less a person than Alexandros (Paris) is described as being
armed with the 'curved bow'; and possibly the popularity which the weapon
enjoyed in the great Asiatic empires extended to Troy. Among the gods, Apollo
of the silver bow was pre-eminently the archer. The fact that he was also the
god of the lyre was probably something more than a coincidence, the most
rudimentary form of harp in Africa being to this day practically a wooden bow
with a single string, which indeed is actually used for both purposes by the
Damarees; whilst the shape of the Greek lyre suggests that it was made of the
horns of animals combined with strings, which were also the component parts
of the Greek bow. The epithet no doubt referred to the outer decoration of the bow, as
silver could not enter into the active part of its structure.

That the Greek bow was commonly a composite, or at any rate a horn one, is
evident from the epithet , which is constantly applied to it by Homer. This word
signifies the recurving peculiar to the horn bow when un strung, which is due
to the horns regaining their natural shape, and it is best translated by the
word reflex, which is the tech nical term describing a bow which, when
unstrung, bends from the centre in the opposite direction to that in which it
is drawn. This epithet is also used by Æschylus of the Scythian bow
('Choephor,' 160)--
by Herodotus (vii. 69) of the bows carried by the
Arabians, and by other writers. In the fourth book of the 'Iliad' we have a
description of the making of the bow of Pandarus. The following rendering of
this well-known passage is by Mr. Walter Leaf:--[3]

Forthwith he unsheathed his polished bow of horn of
a wild ibex that he himself had erst smitten beneath the breast as it
came forth from a rock, the while he awaited in a lurking-place; and
had pierced it in the chest, so that it fell backward on the rock. Now
from its head sprang there horns of sixteen palms; these the artificer,
even the worker in horn, joined cunningly together, and polished them
au well, and set the tip of gold thereon. So he laid it down when he
had well strung it, by resting it upon the ground.

According to the above description, and taking the palm at four inches,
the bow must have been between five and six feet long, which is large for a
bow of this kind. It appears to have been a pure horn bow, without any
reinforcement of sinew or stiffening of wood. It is, however, possible that
Homer was not well acquainted with the bowyer's craft, and that bows of this
date were, in fact, composite, as horn alone does not make a very good
weapon. The maker is merely said to have smoothed or polished the horn well
no mention being made of its
being lacquered or covered with leather or bark.

Then he took the notch and string of oxes' sinew together, and drew,
bringing to his breast the string, and to the bow the Iron head. so when he
had now bent the great bow into a round, the horn twanged, and the string
sang aloud, and the keen arrow leapt eager to wing his way amid the
throng.

From this it appears that the Greeks drew low, to the breast. The
arrow-head was of iron, though bronze piles are also, mentioned by Homer. The
arrow Hew with mighty force, for though it struck Menelaus 'where the golden
buckles of the belt were clasped and the double breastplate met them,' yet it
pierced them both, and passing through the taslet, ' fashioned by the
coppersmiths,' beneath, wounded his flesh. The arrow did not, however, pierce
far into his body; for Menelaus was cheered when he saw that the threads by
which the iron head was attached to the shaft, and the barbs, were outside
the wound. Nevertheless, a leech was summoned, who drew out the arrow and
sucked the blood from the wound. This latter operation suggests a fear that
the arrow was poisoned; though we are not told that this was the case, and
poisoned arrows are only mentioned once in Homer. In fact, the Greeks
regarded the use of poisoned arrows as discreditable.

There are few more thrilling episodes, even in the 'Odyssey,' than that
which follows the return of Odysseus to Ithaca. Penelope his wife, worn out
by the importunity of the suitors, takes down the great bow which had been
given to Odysseus by Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, and announces that she will
forsake her home and marry the man who shall most easily string the mighty
bow and shoot through the rings of twelve axes which should be set up for the
purpose. Anyone who has tried to string an Eastern bow knows that, even if
the bow is weak, owing to its reflexed shape, it is no easy matter, and the
bow of Eurytus was not a weak one. Telemachus, Odysseus's son, failed three
times, and might have succeeded the fourth, but at a nod from Odysseus he
laid it down, and the suitors tried their luck. one after another they
attempted the feat, but none could master the weapon. At last Odysseus
himself took it, and in a moment, without an effort, he bent it and twanged
the bow-string, which rang sweetly like the note of a swallow. Taking up an
arrow, he drew the bow from the settle on which he sat, and shot clean
through the rings of all the axes. Then follows a fight of one against a
crowd, the like of which no living man has seen, but which though it is
written in Greek, every schoolboy delights to read of. The exact nature of
the feat with the axes has somewhat puzzled scholars, but Mr. Lang and Mr.
Butcher[4] figure a Greek
axe which might well have served for the purpose. To shoot through a series
of twelve small rings set up in a line would be a test not only of accurate
shooting, but of strength. Indeed, the interest of the feat lies mainly in
this latter point. The arrow must have been drawn from a point exactly
opposite, and on a level with, the line of rings; and if the axes were some
three feet long, this would be secured by shooting, as Odysseus did, sitting
down. But if the axes were three feet long, the ring would be only some four
inches in diameter. Nothing is said as to the distance at which the axes
stood from each other. Taking it, however, at one yard only, this would mean
that in twelve yards the arrow would only fall four inches by gravitation
This would indicate marvellously strong shooting; but the point of interest
seems to be that a test of this somewhat complicated kind, involving a
knowledge of the theory of trajectory, should have been thought of in the
time of Homer.

From Herodotus's description of the army which Xerxes led against the
Greeks we learn that a very large proportion of his troops were armed with
bows. So numerous, indeed, were the archers that before Thermopylae Dieneces
- said to have been the bravest of the Spartans - was told that when the
Medes began to shoot they would obscure the sun by the multitude of their
shafts. To which Dieneces gave his famous answer, 'so much the better for the
Greeks, for they would then have to fight in the shade.' Various kinds of
bows were to be found in the host of Xerxes. The Persians themselves, the
Medes, the Hyrcanians, and many others, had long bows, and arrows made of
cane. These were probably composite bows, but bigger than the short horn bow
carried by the Scythians, which, when unstrung, was said to be similar in
shape to the Black Sea. The Bactrians had bows made of cane peculiar to their
country, and the Indians had bows of cane, and arrows of cane tipped with
iron. At no time, probably, was the horn bow universally used throughout
Asia, although it was the typical Asiatic weapon. Indeed, a highly finished
composite bow would always be an expensive weapon, whereas bamboo bows,
though less effective, would be easily come by. The Arians were furnished
with Medie, that is, composite, bows, though in other respects they were
accoutred like the Bactrians. The Arabians carried long bows which bent
backwards while the Ethiopians
carried ' long bows,'[5]
not less than four cubits in length, made from branches of the palm-tree, and
on them they placed short arrows made of cane, instead of iron-tipped with a
stone; which was made sharp, and of that sort on which they engrave seals --
some form of agate probably. The Lycians had bows made of cornel-wood and cane arrows without feathers
Neither the bows nor the arrows of these gentlemen could, therefore, have
been very formidable weapons. It was usual, however, for both Greeks and
Asiatics to feather their arrows, the eagle's feather being probably thought
most highly of, as Hesiod ('Shield of Hercules,' 134) describes the arrows of
Hercules as being 'at the butt covered with the feathers of a dusky
eagle.'

Guhl and Koner say that archery was received amongst the gymnastic
exercises in only a few Greek States; but Plato, in his treatise on the Laws,
recommends that boys after six years of age should ' learn horsemanship and
archery, and the hurling of darts and the using of slings, and the females,
too, if they consent.[6] He
also calls attention to the fact that the Scythians taught their youth to
shoot both right and left handed. He accounts (Book I. c. ii.) for the
superiority of the Cretan archers to those of Thessaly by the fact that Crete
is mountainous, and that in such a country light weapons are an advantage,
and that bows and arrows on this account were the most suitable weapons.

Crete was undoubtedly the part of Greece in which archery was esteemed
most highly, and numerous representations of archers are to be found on the
Cretan coins throughout a very long period. In many cases the bow is
evidently a simple wooden arcus, apparently not more than four feet in
length, though occasionally the composite form is shown. The natural
resources of the island would provide ample material for weapons of either
character; but the fact that the simple bow of a distinctly African form is
the one most commonly represented would suggest that this was the indigenous
type, the true Cydonian bow, and the neighbourhood of Crete to the African
continent renders this surmise not improbable. Further, Mr. A. J. Evans has
pointed out to me that when the Asiatic bow- occurs on Cretan coins it is
generally associated with Heracles, while Apollo is always provided with the
African form. As Apollo was a native Cretan deity, and Heracles was, so to
speak, a foreigner, this fact confirms the theory.

Fig. 59 is a Cydonian coin representing Apollo stringing his bow. He has
grasped it by the centre with his left hand, and is fixing the string with
the right. The bow being a short one, the lower end is not resting on the
ground, but is pressed against the left thigh. It is of the simple or African
type.

Fig. 60, from a Greek vase now in Paris, gives a capital representation of
an archer stringing the composite bow in the manner practised in the East to
this day.

The simple form of bow is not confined among the ancient Greeks to the
island of Crete, but it may be seen still associated with Apollo on
Graeco-Syrian coins of the time of Antiochus II. and the Seleucid kings. Bows
of this shape, but wrapped about the centre with strips of FIG 61. Auxiliary
archers in the Roman army some material, are figured on Ephesian coins about
300 to 280 B.C.

Among the Romans the bow seems never to have been held in much favour,
though after the time of Marius it was introduced by mercenary troops. In the
monuments representations of archers occur, but from their costume they can
always be distinguished as auxiliary troops- Cretans, Balearic islanders, and
so forth. In later times the Emperor Commodus devoted much attention to
archery, and marvellous tales are told of the skill which he attained.